Day 30 of 84 – No Breadcrumbs Here

For most my life, I recall looking for a breadcrumb trail left by others who had trod the path before me. My logic was that they could show me exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. The logic concluded that this was the best way to guarantee success.

The problem is that whenever I did find a trail of breadcrumbs, it was either incomplete, went a direction that I did not want to go, or was no longer there when I came to critical decisions or forks in the road. Never had I considered that the breadcrumb trail might have been left by two stupid children that were beguiled by a candy bearing witch.

Several decades of looking for breadcrumbs left by others, I finally learned a vital lesson. There is no defined path to success. There is no gold brick road, the wizard is just a farce, and nobody can give you courage as a gift. You will not find success on the front cover, back cover or any where in between on that book you just bought. The path is undefined and the only way it becomes defined is when you put one foot in front of another and get on the way.

You may find general guidelines in well defined careers. For example, a medical doctor or a lawyer can be pretty prescriptive in terms of education. However, even in those careers, the successful practitioners will look back on their lives and marvel over the twists and turns they took on the path to success. You could argue that the path to success is even less defined in a well established career. Once you get that honorific title called Doctor or Lawyer, what now?

There just simple is no path. There is no breadcrumb trail to follow. No one can tell you what to do and remove all the risk from you in deciding what fork in the road to take. Best thing you can do is to pick a remote destination, perhaps a distant mountain peak and go forth.

The problem with the digital generation is that there are a lot of people providing guidance, roadmaps, and breadcrumb trails. Young people are paralyzed with indecision because the pressure to choose right is intense and advice is found on every click, every stream, every popup. What they really need to know is this, the best path is the one you are on. Make a decision and go. The odds of you staying course are low anyway, so you might as well get started. I have personally had 5 career changes in a half century of living, I imagine that is below average.

You are never, repeat never, going to know what you are going to be when you grow up. That stupid question haunted me as a child, and it still does. I will be what I will be. What matters is that you are on a path, and that you are going forward. So pick one and get on with it. At the end of your life it will not matter what path you picked, what will matter is how you pursued that paths you were on. Every path leads to success if you are committed to the life long journey.

Guy Reams